by Chris Billowsin Think (Speculation), Trade (Blogging)0 commentstags: Blogging, Human Condition, Republic of Bloggers, Virtuous Discourse
An open letter to Chris Bateman responding to his blog-letter Top Ten Cybergs at Only A Game as part of the Republic of Bloggers. Feel welcome to provide your own input via the Comments! Dear Chris, What an great concept. It makes so much sense to link human networks with its inherent technology. The term Cyberg emphasizes the linked aspect of humanity, technology, and networks. It got me thinking about some additional Cyberg applications that were not included in your list, but I’m not sure where would these fit in your hierarchy of top Cybergs. I think that a few of them may warrant some attention. 1) Literacy Literacy is a tool and technology to symbol understanding. I think it might be the very first connection system, being one of the fundamental pillars that supports civilization. While this technology is not cyber based it is definitely a network that communicates ideas and thoughts. 2) Toys Toys, like Literacy appears to be older than any of the other cybergs as it is so fundamental to human and animal development. While it is not a network, I think the the fact that it is shared cross-species, it is as if […]

by Chris Billowsin Think (Speculation)0 comments
Ideas are important and so is execution to implement those ideas. They go hand in hand. But how do you decide if an idea is worth pursuing? I did a bit of research of how to vet out business ideas. One system of vetting that I came across was from the Fizzle podcast: Corbett’s Vetting List Demand — is it something people want? Competition — who else is doing it? Are they successful? Care — how much personal interest do you have in this topic? Expertise — how much do you know about this topic? Specificity — how broad or narrow will your lens on this topic be? Differentiation — how will you differentiate yourself from others in this market? Likability of Customers — do you like them now? Will you like them later? Can/Will They Pay — do they have moneys and will they share those moneys with you to solve this problem you’re helping them with? Lifestyle — if this became successful, what would your life look like? Would this be a 200 person company? A single laptop on a beach? Does that fit with your personal goals? That is a great list! But since I […]

by Chris Billowsin Think (Speculation)0 comments
I really appreciated this post by Derek Sivers. Being the type of person who has lots of imagination and ideas, I can fall into the trap of thinking that ideas are worth something. To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions. Explanation: AWFUL IDEA = -1 WEAK IDEA = 1 SO-SO IDEA = 5 GOOD IDEA = 10 GREAT IDEA = 15 BRILLIANT IDEA = 20 ——– ——— NO EXECUTION = $1 WEAK EXECUTION = $1000 SO-SO EXECUTION = $10,000 GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000 GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000 BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000 To make a business, you need to multiply the two. The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000. That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution. This makes sense to me but I would argue that idea must have some kind of power of attraction. Otherwise, you lose your energy to persist and it falls apart. Execution will not happen unless the idea can hold our attention. I highly doubt a weak idea being perfectly […]

by Chris Billowsin Think (Speculation)0 commentstags: Human Condition, Quotations
Fascinating news this week. We have intercepted an alien signal and the speculation is that it is so strong and intentional it is thought to come from a civilization that is more advanced than our own. https://observer.com/2016/08/not-a-drill-seti-is-investigating-a-possible-extraterrestrial-signal-from-deep-space/ “The signal’s strength indicates that if it in fact came from a isotropic beacon, the power source would have to be built by a Kardashev Type II civilization. (The Kardashev scale is used to determine the progress of a civilization’s technological development by measuring how much energy was used to transmit an interstellar message.) An ‘Isotropic’ beacon means a communication source emitting a signal with equal power in all directions while promoting signal strength throughout travel.” The news is remarkable, but just as remarkable is that somebody has created a civilization scale that borders on the absolute fantastic. The Kardashev Scale says that we are possibly receiving the signal from a civilization that has encased its sun with some kind of material so that no energy escapes the solar system! That is so amazing it sounds like magic, but what is just as astounding is that this level of civilization is only two of possibly five levels of advancement. …and I thought that […]

by Chris Billowsin Think (Speculation)0 comments
Life is full of choices at times. Sometimes we feel as if we have no choice because we are forced to do something. But generally, most societies do allow some degree of choice. In the West, choice is directly tied to the concept of human rights. Now the quality of our choices is pretty diverse. There are Easy Choices, Hard to See Choices, and Hard to Choose Choices. The Easy Choices are those that have clear consequences. A good choice would be something that creates a positive outcome while a bad choice would create a negative outcome. Few people would intentionally make choices that have negative consequences for themselves. The Hard to See Choices are those that have long term consequences that we are unaware of. The nuclear disaster in Japan is a great example of this. Because human beings are so predisposed to thinking short term, they are guilty of making short term choices and ignore the long term consequences. If the company officials did a long term evaluation of building nuclear plants near oceans and fault lines, perhaps they would not have proceeded as they did. Maybe they still would have, believing the long term risk is not […]

by Chris Billowsin Think (Speculation)0 comments
Do you remember the part of The Matrix where Morpheus tells Neo that humans are in fact trapped in a massive neural network that is directly linked into their collective consciousness? It is a way of controlling humans so that the Machines can live off the energy that our body heat produces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IojqOMWTgv8&feature=player_embedded That was one of the cooler scenes of the entire series and it leads me to ask you: How do we know that life as we know it is not a virtual reality construction like the Matrix? How do we know we are free or are just allowed to think we are free?

by Chris Billowsin Think (Speculation)0 comments
If you have the balanced relationship with money, you see it as a means to an end. Money is a tool that gives you control over your life and more money can give you more control over your life, but to a limit. How we spend our money determines the value of what we experience in life. In a very real way, money has two facets. Its cost to buy the things we want and the value of what we are get. The problem is that we spend lots of time thinking about cost and very little if any about value. In my job I deal with giving out people money to provide their own care. It works really, really well but there are always people who try to get away with stuff. I have had clients spend the money on things that fall outside of the boundaries of what we allow. When this happens, we ask for the money to be paid back. Why? Because there is a double cost to them misspending the money. 1) The monetary cost. The money that was given out is gone. 2) The value cost. The value gotten for the monetary cost is […]

by Chris Billowsin Think (Speculation)0 comments
I am a huge finance geek. Since 2001 I track all of my expenses with MS Money. Previous to that I kept the receipts of all of my computer and gaming purchases, perhaps for nostalgia. Anyways, I have a pretty decent estimate how much I have spent (including the earliest machines which were purchased for me) since I started gaming. > 1976-1979 ~$250 on Video Arcades and some Pinball > 1980-1983 ~$1000 on a Atari 2600 and 30+ cartridges > 1984-1985 ~$500 on a Timex Sinclair 2000; Tape Player (100+KB per tape side). I hated it when the tape wire would jiggle and the program would need to be reloaded from the start 😡 ; Spectrum ROM. I used to swap the ROMs to emulate the UK computer to play a bunch of excellent games which also was my first experience with emulation. > 1986-1988 ~$1000 on a Commodore 64C; Commodore 1541 Floppy Drive (170KB capacity). I remember renting computer games. Everyone copied them of course. 😳 > 1988-1992 ~$400 on a Raven PR-9101 9-Pin Dot Martix Printer. My first peripheral that made computers a business machine. > 1990-1992 ~$2000 on an Atari 1040 STe; 1MB SIMM RAM; 720KB Floppy […]

by Chris Billowsin Think (Speculation)0 comments
I recall back in 1992, the first time I opened up my Wintel CPU Unit. I was stunned. The unit was so big, but on the inside it was so completely empty. I saw the hard drive, the motherboard, and the wires connecting everything, Yet where was the games I was playing? I expected to see the land of Illuria (the original Warlords game I was playing) inside the case. Of course, I intellectually knew that the game existed as ones and zeros on the hard drive, but it made me do a double-take. Everything we do on computers and consoles are those ones and zeros being quickly arranged in elaborate patterns. It is simply a series of electrical current that we are seeing on the screen – just like right now. It is truly amazing. 😆 I think that this amazement helped the Matrix movies give the impact they did. They portrayed the question of What is Reality? My experience was like an introduction to the Buddhist concept of Sunyata or Emptiness. When everything is not what we think it is, then why become upset when a game is lost or prideful when a game is won? 😉